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GEOGRAPHY

More than 250 million years ago, a movement of the earth's crust on a fault line formed the great rift across Scotland which is now called the 'Great Glen' (glen being the Scottish word for valley). Water gradually filled the deeper parts of this rift and today it consists of the three main lakes (loch is the Scottish = Gaelic word for lake) Loch Ness, Loch Oich and Loch Lochy, which since the middle of the 19th Century have been linked up by the man-built Caledonian Canal.
This waterway, more than sixty miles long, provides a passage for smaller craft from the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean; This way boats can avoid the very dangerous sea route round the North of Scotland.

Loch Ness is by far the largest of the three lochs : being nearly 24 miles in length, just under a mile wide, it has an area of 21.78 square miles. It is not the largest lake in Great Britain, but it contains much more water than any other British lake. It has been estimated to contain something like 265,000 million cubic feet of water.

The deepest part of the Loch is opposite the John Cobb Memorial, where the lake is 980 feet deep. The mean depth is 433 feet which is more than the mean depth of the North Sea.
Some 40 yards from the beach on either side, the bed drops away, giving a series of underwater roch faces, ledges and huge overhangs.
Loch Ness is fed by eight rivers, sixty major streams and hundreds of small streams. It is free from pollution, but these rivers and streams wash down millions of tiny peat particles which make visibility in the water almost non-existent.

Normally the largest thing in a land-locked stretch of water like Loch Ness would be a sixty pounds salmon, which is about five feet long, or a pike of the same size. But in Loch Ness thousands of people have seen a creature break surface which is certailny 30 feet, maybe more, in length.

FISH

A word of warning to would-be fishermen : the Beasties might not like the competition!
Seriously, the Loch Ness Creatures must eat fish, as there have never been reliable reports about one of the creatures on land. There have never been reports of animals being taken from Loch-side farms. Nor have there been reports of trees and bushes on the banks being stripped of vegetation. Most significantly, there have never been any tracks or marks found on the banks or beaches by professional game keepers, water bailiffs or salmon fishermen.

Apart from our large creatures, Loch Ness is very rich in fish life. Brown trout, pike and arctic char live there amongst the thousands of eels. Of the greatest interest to local anglers are the salmon and sea trout which run from the North Sea, up the river Ness, jump the weir and run through the Loch to spawn in the rivers and burns which feed it.
When I lived there 20 years ago, the salmon fishing season started on January 15th and ended on October 15th. We used to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to go catch the fish. Especially in the winter months it was freezing cold in the boat - but it was considered an honour to be amongst the first fishermen in the season to catch a salmon. Nobody could really afford to eat a salmon in January or even February - not at the prices they were offering in Inverness for the early ones caught!
Later in the season we obviously had salmon on the menu quite often - with as a result I dislike salmon now, for not tasting anywhere near as good as the ones we caught up in Scotland!

The most efficient method for catching salmon is trolling, for which a licensed boat was required. A twelve to fifteen foot rod protrudes from either side of the boat and the lures are some 30 yards behind. The speed of the boat had to be controlled to keep the lures about 4 feet below the surface. The boat should run parallel to, and about 40 yards from, the beach. Salmon are seldom taken out in the deep water of the Loch. The largest salmon caught when I lived there was a 44 pound one.
Quite large sea-trout are often taken while trolling for salmon.
Both for salmon and trout fishing in Loch Ness the water needs to be rough. Good fish were seldom caught in calm water.

The amount of salmon coming through the lake was dwindling when I lived there. This was in no way due to over-fishing by the locals, but an effect of the large boats taking salmon amongst other fish in the North Sea, near the estuaries.
And don't forget the Loch Ness Creatures are protected by law - if you catch one, throw it back!

Lieve Peten